Where the Shadows Lie (Fire and Ice)

married Sigursteinn, who was some kind of car dealer from Selfoss. I could tell the minute I met him that Sigursteinn fancied me. It took him less than a month after he got married before he, well …’ she took a deep drag of her cigarette. ‘Well, he raped me really. I didn’t think that at the time, but it was rape. He wanted sex with me, I was scared of him. It happened. Lots of times.’
    ‘Ingileif found out, caught us at it, and she went crazy. She went at him with a broken bottle, but in the end it was she who was cut. Have you noticed she has a little scar on her eyebrow? And on her cheek?’
    Magnus nodded.
    ‘Well, that was Sigursteinn. Ingileif told Mum, who didn’t believe her. There was the most almighty family row. Ingileif was thrown out of the house, I was too scared to say anything. Then, three months later, Sigursteinn was on a business trip to Reykjavík when he fell into the harbour. I was so relieved.’
    ‘How did your mother react?’
    ‘She was totally distraught. She went as far as accusing Ingileif of killing him, which was just stupid. Then I told her exactly what he had done to me, and eventually she believed it.’ Birna stared, her big blue eyes unblinking. ‘That pretty much mucked up our family.’
    ‘I can imagine,’ said Magnus.
    ‘Ingileif went away to Reykjavík. In recent years she started speaking to Mum again. She spent a lot of time with her just before she died.’
    ‘And you?’
    Birna blinked. ‘Oh, I married Matthías and have lived a perfect life of happiness ever since.’
    Magnus ignored the sarcasm. ‘And Pétur?’
    ‘He missed all this. He came back to Reykjavík a couple of years later. We see each other occasionally. But whenever we do I get the impression he feels sorry for me. Can’t think why.’
    God, what a family, Magnus thought. His own was bad enough. He remembered Ingileif’s quavering voice when she had told him about the ghost of the girl accused of incest at the Höfdi House. No wonder she felt sorry for her. She was thinking of Birna.
    ‘One last question. Where were you last Thursday night? The first day of summer?’
    Birna laughed again. ‘You can’t be serious? You don’t think I killed the poor man, do you.’
    ‘Just answer the question.’
    Birna hesitated. ‘Do I have to?’
    Magnus knew what was coming next. He was beginning to get used to the sex life of Icelanders. ‘Yes, you do. And we will have to check out whatever you tell us. But we will do it discreetly, I can promise you. And it won’t come up in any eventual trial, unless it is relevant to the prosecution.’
    Birna sighed. ‘Matthías was in New York. Probably in bed with a flight attendant.’
    ‘And you?’
    ‘I was with a friend named Dagur Tómasson. He’s married as well. We spent the night in a hotel in Kópavogur. It’s anonymous and as discreet as you can get in Iceland.’
    ‘Which one?’
    ‘The Merlin.’
    ‘And can we have his address?’
    ‘I’ll give you his mobile phone number,’ said Birna. ‘It’s nothing serious,’ she continued, staring straight at Magnus. The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. ‘I don’t like to restrict myself to any one man.’
    ‘I think she likes you,’ said Árni five minutes later as he was driving Magnus back to station.
    ‘Shut up,’ growled Magnus. ‘And check out the hotel. But somehow I suspect that alibi will hold up.’

CHAPTER TWENTY
    B ALDUR LISTENED CLOSELY as Magnus explained his theory that Agnar was trying to sell the ring from Gaukur’s Saga to Steve Jubb and the modern-day Isildur.
    ‘So what are you suggesting?’ he said, when Magnus had finished. ‘We go over Agnar’s house again, looking for a mythical ring that has been lost for a thousand years? Do you know how absurd that sounds?’ The expression on Baldur’s long face verged on contempt. ‘You were brought here to bring us some big-city homicide experience. Instead you start mumbling about elves and rings like the most superstitious Icelandic grandmother. You’ll be saying the hidden people did it next.’
    Magnus’s foul mood deepened. He knew that Baldur was trying to needle him, and he fought to control his anger.
    ‘Of course I don’t believe that the ring is really a thousand years old,’ Magnus said. ‘Look. We know Steve Jubb murdered Agnar. But since he won’t tell us why, we need to figure it out for ourselves. We also know that Agnar was trying to sell a saga – we’ve both seen it. It